Rather it is a geographical term in Old Norse which refers to a piece of land shaped like a spit or tongue.

Tongue House is the historic seat of the Clan Mackay, after they abandoned Castle Varrich (Caisteal Bharraich).

The ruins of the castle, built at Tongue in the eleventh century after the clan were expelled from their ancestral Province of Moray to County Sutherland, are a popular tourist attraction.

In the Highland Clearances, many people who were cleared from the interior of Sutherland moved to this village.

The Gaelic poet Ewen Robertson (Scottish Gaelic: Eòghainn MacDhonnchaidh, 1842–95) lived in Tongue his entire life, and is most famous for his song "Mo mhallachd aig na caoraich mhòr" ("My curses on the Border sheep") mocking, among others, the Duchess of Sutherland and Patrick Sellar.